“How clear is clear?†asked Justice Antonin Scalia, famously. On Friday, the Supreme Court made absolutely clear that Chevron is dead. Judicial deference to agency interpretations of statutory ambiguities is no longer the law of the land. The case is Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. The Supreme Court’s slip opinion is available here.
Writing for a 6-3 majority, the Chief Justice explained the almost accidental birth of Chevron deference, its remarkable expansion as modern doctrine, and its progressive deflation in more recent years. The Court held that, throughout its rise and fall in popularity, the deference doctrine was fatally inconsistent with both the mandate of Article 3 of the US Constitution and the Congressional prescription in the Administrative Procedure Act: it is for judges to say what the law is, without bending to the contrary wishes of any other authority.
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